It's an interesting pairing of an inward-looking and harmony-rich pianist and a forthright, straight-out virtuosic singer whose talent still hasn't quite been captured on record but who always gives rewarding performances.
And Mr. Denk's texturally rich pianism makes these pieces what they should be: partnerships for a violinist and a pianist, rather than violin works with deferential piano accompaniments.
And, too, her rich partnership with the pianist Aaron Diehl, who is also a kind of classicist at play — a John Lewis and stride-piano admirer who puts lots of space and thought into his phrases and arrangements.
Mr. Hersch has few rivals as a solo pianist, drawing rich, complex layers of harmony and sound out of his instrument, reorganizing old tunes so that you hear them fresh.
This season brings an especially rich crop of exciting pianists like Louis Lortie and Peter Serkin scheduled to appear in the coming months.
An acoustic All Grown Up, with pianist Steve Nieve, is rich and burnished; Watching the Detectives becomes a dub labyrinth; Radio, Radio is as nervy as the day it was written.
(Chinen) ★ Fred Hersch Duo Invitation Week (Tuesday through May 12) As he has here before, Mr. Hersch, a sophisticated and abidingly melodic pianist, pairs with a rich succession of duo partners.
In the last five years Mr. Hersch has made his name as a solo pianist; his harmonies are rich and his dynamics are shrewd enough that he can seem like several pianists at once playing from different corners of the stage.
On Sunday, the Ying Quartet and Elinor Freer, a pianist, perform Dvorak's rich-textured Piano Quartet in E flat.
But just as familiar, and much more uplifting, was the concert's rich and unpredictable journey, steered by the pianist's voluminous musical memory and spontaneous reflexes.
BEN RATLIFF CARLA BLEY: CARLA'S CHRISTMAS CAROLS (ECM, $17.90) The Christmas carol provides rich melodic sustenance for Carla Bley, a shrewdly resourceful pianist, composer and arranger whose foundation is jazz, in the broadest and most unburdened sense of the word.
